The present invention relates to furniture, and in particular to a prefabricated frame construction for wood furniture and the like.
Wood furniture is used extensively in offices, homes and the like to provide a natural and aesthetic appearance. Such furniture has a rich appearance and is traditionally regarded as prestigious or up-level. However, wood furniture requires special care to avoid damage to the various wooden parts, especially around exposed joints which are particularly prone to chipping and scratching, both during manufacture of individual parts, and also during assembly. Not only are purchasers particularly sensitive to wood damage, but wooden parts are not easily repaired in an acceptable manner due to the natural grain of the wood.
Compounding these quality problems are problems encountered during assembly. Wood furniture often utilizes multiple non-uniform parts, thus leading to logistical problems of inventory control and material flow to the point of assembly. Often, the wood panels require multiple machining or specialized tooling and assembly techniques. Efforts to reduce the amount of parts, and to otherwise simplify assembly has lead to the use of glues and adhesives. However, these are often messy and difficult to reliably control. Further, they require clamps and cure times that are inconsistent with an efficient assembly process. Thus, assembly of wood furniture tends to continue to include a considerable amount of custom-build labor.
Also desirable is an assembly arrangement which combines the advantages of plastic or other structural formable materials without detracting from the aesthetic and prestigious appearance of the wood furniture.
Thus, improvements are desired in the assembly of wood furniture to simplify and improve assembly by reducing the need for specialized tools, parts, and assembly skills, reducing the amount of machining, finishing and parts required, reducing the quality problems such as scratching and chipping, and generally improving manufacturing efficiency.